The Unofficial Football World Championships (UFWC) is an informal way of calculating the world's best international association football team, using a knock-out title system similar to that used in boxing and professional wrestling.[1] The UFWC was formalized and published by English journalist Paul Brown in 2003.[2] The title is currently held by Peru, who won it from Bolivia on 31 August 2017.

The idea stemmed originally from some Scotland fans and sections of the media jokingly asserting that as they beat England (who had won the 1966 World Cup) in a British Home Championship match on 15 April 1967 – England's first loss after their FIFA World Cup victory – they were the "Unofficial World Champions".[3][4][5]

In 2003 freelance journalist Paul Brown defined the rules of the UFWC, traced its lineage and wrote an article in football magazine FourFourTwo.[2] In 2011 Brown authored a book on the subject.[6] Brown also created and maintains the championship's website which tracks its progression.

The Unofficial Football World Championships is not sanctioned by FIFA, nor does it have any sort of official backing. The winner is awarded a virtual trophy – the CW Alcock Cup, named after him as he was a major instigator in the development of international football in his role as FA secretary.[7]

The first team to win an international football match were declared first ever Unofficial Football World Champions. This was England who defeated Scotland 4–2 in 1873 in the second full international match, the first in 1872 having been a 0–0 draw between the same two nations.[8]

The next full international (now defined by the standards of a FIFA-accredited international 'A' match) involving the title holder is considered a title match, with the winners taking the title.[N 1]

In the event of a title match being a draw, the current holders of the title remain champions.

UFWC title matches are decided by their ultimate outcome, including extra time and penalties.[N 2][9]

Title matches are contested under the rules of the governing body which they are sanctioned by.

While the tracking of the Unofficial Football World Champions is a relatively recent phenomenon, the rules are such that results are analysed retrospectively to determine the championship's theoretical lineage from the very first international matches. A comprehensive list of results since 1872 is recorded by UFWC.[10]

The first ever international match was a 0–0 draw between England and Scotland, on 30 November 1872 at Hamilton Crescent.[11] The Unofficial World Championship thus remained vacant until the same two teams met again at the Kennington Oval on 8 March 1873. England won 4–2, and so are regarded as having become the inaugural Unofficial Football World Champions.[12]Wales entered the 'competition' in 1876, and Ireland in 1882. The Championship however, continued to swap between Scotland and England until March 1903, when Ireland beat Scotland 2–0. Wales won the title for the first time in March 1907, beating Scotland 1–0. Scotland regained the Championship the following year, which saw England playing internationally. Scotland, however, did not do the same and so retained the title. By the end of 1909, England had taken the title and defended it outside of the British Isles for the first time. England defeated Hungary 4–2 on 29 May 1909.[13]

Ireland won the title for the third time in 1927, beating England 2–0. Of the two teams using the name Ireland at that time, this was the team representing the Belfast-based Irish Football Association, subsequently known as Northern Ireland.

It was 1931 when the title was first passed outside the British Isles, to Austria in their third attempt with a 5–0 victory over Scotland.[14] They held the title until 7 December 1932 when they lost 4–3 to England at Stamford Bridge,[15] and for all but the last few months of the decade it was held by those four teams. In the 1940s the title was held by continental teams, notably those representing the Axis powers and countries neutral during World War II, but was recaptured by England in time for the 1950 World Cup. Here, in a shock result, they lost to the United States in one of the biggest upsets ever; it was the first venture of the title onto the Americas,[16] where it remained for all but one of the following 16 years.

The UFWC returned to Europe in time for the 1966 FIFA World Cup with the Soviet Union. They lost the championship in the semi-final to West Germany, who lost the final to England.[18] The following year, the England v Scotland match of 1967, which first gave rise to the idea of an unofficial world championship, really was a UFWC title match.[19] With Germany's victory over Netherlands in the 1974 World Cup Final, Germany became the first team to hold the World Cup, European Championship and the UFWC at the same time.[3] The title stayed in Europe until 1978, when it was taken by Argentina, the winners of the 1978 World Cup. It remained in South America until the 1982 World Cup where Peru lost to Poland.[20] The UFWC remained in Europe for the next ten years, except for a one-year tenure by Argentina.

In 1992, the title returned to the United States and then was held for one match by Australia,[21] before it worked its way through several South American nations, back through Europe and to its first Asian holders, South Korea, who defeated Colombia in the 1995 Carlsberg Cup semi-final.[22] The Koreans lost the title to Yugoslavia in their next match, and the UFWC remained in Europe until March 1998 when Germany lost it to Brazil in a friendly. Argentina then defeated Brazil in a friendly to carry the UFWC into the 1998 World Cup.

France repeated Argentina's 1978 feat by taking the title as they won the World Cup on home turf, beating Brazil 3–0 in the final.[23] England took the title for the last time to date at UEFA Euro 2000.[24][25] France and Spain enjoyed spells as champions before the Netherlands won the title in March 2002. As the Dutch had failed to qualify for the 2002 World Cup, the UFWC was, unusually, not at stake at the official World Cup. The Netherlands retained the title until 10 September 2003, when they lost a Euro 2004 qualifier 3–1 to Czech Republic.[26]

The Czechs defended their title a few times, before losing it to the Republic of Ireland in a friendly via a last-minute winner by Robbie Keane.[27][28] The title then went to an African nation for the first time, as they lost it to Nigeria.[29]Angola won and kept this title through late 2004 and early 2005. They were then beaten by Zimbabwe (in a match that tripled as a World Cup qualifier and an African Nations qualifier),[3][30] who held the title for six months before Nigeria re-gained it in October 2005. Nigeria were beaten by Romania,[31] who lost it to Uruguay within six months.[32] Uruguay became the highest ranked team to hold the title since 2004, but their failure to qualify for the World Cup finals meant that, for the second time in succession, the unofficial title was not available at the official championships.[33]

The title was brought back to Europe by Georgia on 15 November 2006, with both goals scored by Levan Kobiashvili in a 2–0 victory.[34] They lost the title to the highest ranked team in the UFWC of all time, Scotland, on 24 March 2007, nearly forty years since Scotland had last gained the title.[35] Just four days later, Scotland conceded the title 2–0 to FIFA World Cup holders Italy,[36][37] and the title passed through the hands of Hungary twice, Turkey, Greece and Sweden before being claimed by the Netherlands,[38] who eventually lost the title to Spain in the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final after a run that saw more successful defences than any other reign with 21.[39][40]

The title was finally taken from North Korea by Sweden in the 2013 King's Cup, a result not recorded as a full international by FIFA, but nevertheless considered valid by the UFWC website.[N 3][55] In a friendly in February, Sweden were beaten by Argentina who took the title to South America.[56] In October, Argentina lost a FIFA World Cup qualifier to Uruguay.

Uruguay took the UFWC into Group D of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. During the group-stage an already-eliminated England challenged Costa Rica for the UFWC in their third group-stage game and the UFWC was mooted as a potential consolation prize in the British press,[57] however the match was drawn and Costa Rica took the UFWC into the knockout phase. The UFWC and World Cup were "unified", with Germany securing both in the final.

Argentina, the runner-up of the tournament, did not have to wait long for regaining the UFWC title from Germany, as both teams played a friendly soon after the finals, and Argentina won. But this reign ended one match later, when Brazil won the UFWC title after winning 2014 Superclásico de las Américas.

Brazil managed a great defense of the title, holding it several times in various friendlies in the time frame after the end of the 2014 World Cup and before the Copa América 2015, but their reign ended on 17 June 2015 with a defeat by 0–1 at the hands of Colombia in a group stage match in the Copa América 2015. Colombia lost the title in the quarter-finals on penalties to Argentina. Argentina then carried it into the final at the Estadio Nacional in Santiago, where they lost on penalties against Chile. Chile lost the title in a 3–0 loss vs Uruguay in Montevideo. Uruguay held the title until the Copa América Centenario, where they lost it in their first game, a 3–1 loss to Mexico on 5 June 2016. Mexico's reign would only last 13 days before losing it to Chile in a 7–0 thrashing. Chile won the Copa America Centenario after beating Colombia and Argentina, but then lost to Paraguay in a 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification match. Paraguay then lost to Uruguay 4–0 in another qualifying fixture. Uruguay defended the title 3 times in 3 qualifying matches before losing it to Chile 3–1. Chile then successfully defended their title at the 2017 China Cup, the fixtures of which were recognized by FIFA as friendlies, by beating Croatia and Iceland and lost it to Argentina in a 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification match. Argentina's reign would only last 5 days before losing it to Bolivia in another World Cup qualification match. Bolivia defended their title in a pair of friendlies against Nicaragua before losing it to Peru in a World Cup qualifier,and after that,Peru defend it 5 times in the rest of their World Cup qualifiers.

The UFWC website maintains an all-time ranking table of teams, sorting by number of championship matches won. Owing mostly to their successes in the early years of international football, where competition was almost entirely limited to the British Isles, the top ranked team is Scotland, followed by England.[58][59]

Due to the nature of group stages, a team may win or retain the UFWC without qualifying for the knock-out stages of a competition. However, if an UFWC-holding side reaches a knock-out stage, the eventual tournament champions are guaranteed to also be Unofficial World Champions.

No team has ever successfully defended the unofficial world championship title through a World Cup Finals. The Netherlands have come closest, remaining unbeaten in both the 1974 and 2010 competitions right up until the final, where they lost to West Germany and Spain respectively. West Germany were also beaten finalists in 1986, but the title changed hands four times during the tournament.

By necessity, each time the UFWC holder makes it to the knockout stage of a FIFA World Cup, a reunion of the two titles occurs, since the knockout format ensures that the UFWC trophy will be handed on throughout the games into the final. There it will be won by the team which also wins the World Cup. It is, however, possible that the UFWC holder is eliminated in the group stage of the World Cup and leaves the tournament as reigning UFWC champion, in which case no reunion occurs; this happened to Chile in 1950, Mexico in 1962 and Colombia in 1994.

The championships of each of the continental championships are only listed when the UFWC was contested during the tournament. The continental championships of Africa and Oceania have not yet seen competition for this title.

Freelance journalist Paul Brown, who wrote the original FourFourTwo article on the UFWC and maintains the UFWC website,[2] wrote a book on the championship which was published by Superelastic in 2011.[6][60] Written in English, it has also been translated into Japanese.[6]

The online community at the UFWC website keeps track of UFWC-like linages confined to each FIFA confederation. A Women's Unofficial Football World Championships can be traced back either to the first FIFA-recognised women's international in 1971 (a 4–0 victory for France over The Netherlands) or to earlier internationals that are not FIFA recognised.[61][62]

A similar virtual title, Nasazzi's Baton, traces the "championship" from the first World Cup winners Uruguay, after whose captain it is named. Nasazzi's Baton follows the same rules as the UFWC, except that it treats all matches according to their result after 90 minutes.[63]

Another similar competition, the Pound for Pound World Championship (PPWC),[64] was created by Scottish football magazine The Away End. This title only recognises competitive games, although it recognises many unofficial tournaments which are considered to be friendlies by FIFA. As with the UFWC, extra time and penalties are taken into account in defining the winner of a match. It only counts games from as far back as the first FIFA World Cup in 1930, and states that no matter who holds the title of Pound for Pound World Champion they must relinquish the crown at the beginning of every World Cup finals. At the end of the tournament the World Cup winners are crowned the new Pound for Pound World Champions. Therefore, the tournament is "reset" every four years.

^Where the 'A' status of a match is in question, as was the case for 2013 King's Cup matches in January 2013, whether or not the match is considered a title match is at organiser Paul Brown's discretion.

^An exception to this rule is if the second leg of a two-legged playoff goes into extra time because it is tied on aggregate goals and away goals. Since the purpose of the extra time (and penalty kicks if necessary) is to determine the winner of the playoff, not the individual match, it is not included.

^If the result of the match between North Korea and Sweden in 2013 is deemed unofficial, then the UFWC stays in Asia for much longer. For instance, North Korea extends its reign until 6 September 2013 when they lost 1–2 to Kuwait in a friendly. Then Kuwait retains the crown until 3 March 2014 when they lost 2–3 to Iran in a qualifying match for the 2015 Asian Cup. Iran in turn keeps the trophy until the 2014 FIFA World Cup group stage matches, when they lost 0–1 to Argentina. And Argentina kept the UFWC title until the defeat in the World Cup final by 0–1 to Germany. From then on, both paths tracking the UFWC reunite.